As I've said elsewhere, I've always liked the Black Widow. She's not really one of my favorite characters, and I don't follow her adventures closely, and I'm sure there are huge parts of her story that I just don't know, but I'm generally happy to see her show up in any comic I read, as I was in Captain America 27. So I'm wondering just why it is that I'd find it so annoying to have her become a love interest in that book--since otherwise I'm pleased with her presence there.
I think part of this has to do with how I was introduced to her, way back when.
The Black Widow was one of the stronger women of the Silver Age (not that that's saying a great deal). When she first appeared she was a villain, a Soviet spy attempting to seduce Tony Stark (no great challenge, that one) in order to gain information on his company.
She eventually teamed up with Hawkeye during his brief semi-villainous phase, at first using him for her own purposes but eventually falling genuinely in love with him, becoming more heroic, and finally defecting to the United States. Unfortunately, once she'd made those changes, become one of the "good guys," it seemed like she lost a little of her competence and autonomy.
And that's when I "met" her--in the pages of the Avengers. Natasha was still one of the more interesting women around, but she was also "Hawkeye's girlfriend," and you rarely saw her in action without him. There was plenty of angst when she started working for SHIELD; Hawkeye was not pleased about her absences or the peril she was often in (although I think he was less of a dick about it than Captain America was about Sharon Carter's dangerous missions in those days). Eventually they broke things off.
In later years, Natasha became involved with Daredevil; I don't really know much about this part of her life, but since the relationship took place in his book, she would have been part of his supporting cast by definition (i.e. "Daredevil's girlfriend"). You can't fault the writer--if s/he is writing a comic called Daredevil, then clearly Daredevil is going to be the book's focus.
I did read The Champions for a while, that somewhat odd team-up of the Black Widow, Hercules, Angel, Iceman, and a few others. Natasha was team leader, which was not bad for 1975. I'm told that she later hooked up with Hercules, although I'd stopped reading before that point. Presumably she escaped the "Hercules' girlfriend" thing in this case.
So while I think there's a lot of good stuff to be mined based on her prior relationship (such as it was) with the Winter Soldier, I think it's probably better stuff when it's "old friend" or "ex-lover" rather than a rekindlement. (Hm. Not a word, is that?) Since her own book is Mighty Avengers I think it's more likely that significant changes in her life would take place there, but all that time seeing Natasha associated primarily with someone else in their own title (and therefore often being portrayed as less awesome than she should be) has made me wary. I don't think that she shouldn't have a love life, but I'd be much happier if it happened in her own book where I can be more confident that she'll maintain the awesomeness.
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